# nDVR and Catch Up TV for IPTV and OTT Platforms | Vodlix **Source:** https://vodlix.com/features/ndvr **Summary:** Record live channels in the network so viewers watch what already aired, reached through the programme guide, configured per channel to match your rights. **Publisher:** Vodlix --- Record live channels in the network so viewers can watch what already aired, on their own schedule rather than yours. - **Feature Plan:** 3 - live-tv - core-platform ## Live TV That Waits for the Viewer Linear television has one flaw that has never gone away: it happens whether anybody is free or not. Network recording fixes it, turning a channel that was on at four in the afternoon into something a viewer can still watch at nine. ### The Schedule Is the Problem Everything good about linear television comes from the schedule. A channel has a shape, programmes have a time, and viewers know when to turn up. Everything difficult about it comes from the same place, because a schedule set by a broadcaster almost never matches an evening set by a family. Without recording, a channel is worth only what happens to be playing at the moment somebody looks. That is a brutal way to compete against on demand services where nothing is ever missed. Network recording removes the constraint without removing the channel, so the programming you paid for keeps earning after it has aired. #### Recorded in the network The recording happens on the platform rather than on a box in somebody living room, so there is no hardware to ship, nothing to fill up, and a viewer who changes device does not lose anything. #### Reached through the guide Viewers move back along the day strip in the programme guide and start something that already aired. Catch up is not a separate destination they have to learn about, it is the guide they already use. #### Per channel, not all or nothing Recording is enabled on the channels you have the rights to record, and left off elsewhere. Channels advertise what they support, so nobody is offered a catch up that was never going to work. ### How a Channel Gets a Memory Setting it up is deliberately unremarkable. When you add a live channel in the admin area you provide its stream, and alongside that field sits one for the recording source and one for the [programme guide](/features/epg). Fill in the recording URL and that channel gains a past. Because it is configured per channel, the arrangement matches how rights actually work. A channel you own outright can be fully recorded. One you carry under licence can be left live only. And where an agreement restricts particular programmes rather than a whole channel, the guide simply does not offer those entries for playback, which keeps you inside the deal without anybody policing it by hand. The channel list shows which channels carry recording and which carry a guide, so an operator running hundreds of them can see the shape of the lineup at a glance rather than opening each one. ### What It Changes The obvious gain is that viewers stop missing things. The commercial gain is larger and less obvious: recording turns a linear channel into a library that grows on its own. A channel broadcasting sixteen hours a day produces a week of watchable material without anybody commissioning, licensing or uploading anything. That matters most for the audiences hardest to serve with a schedule. Shift workers, parents, anybody in a different timezone from the broadcast. For them a channel without recording is close to useless, and a channel with it behaves like on demand. It also strengthens everything around it. The [programme guide](/features/epg) becomes a way into a catalogue rather than only a timetable, [watch history](/features/watch-history) remembers where somebody stopped in a recorded programme exactly as it would a film, and your [monetization models](/features/ott-monetization-models) apply to catch up the same way they apply to live. Run it alongside [IPTV](/features/iptv) and [live streaming](/features/stream-live-video-online) and it is one operation rather than two. **Q: What is nDVR?** Network DVR. The recording is made and stored on the platform rather than on hardware in the viewer home, so anyone entitled to the channel can watch back what already aired, from any device, with nothing to install. **Q: How do viewers reach recorded programmes?** Through the programme guide. They move back along the day strip and start something that has already been broadcast. There is no separate catch up section to find, because the guide they use to see what is on is the same one that reaches what was on. **Q: How is recording enabled on a channel?** When you add or edit a live channel in the admin area, the recording source sits alongside the stream and the programme guide fields. Filling it in gives that channel a past. Leaving it empty keeps the channel live only. **Q: Can we record some channels and not others?** Yes, and most operators do. Recording is configured per channel, which is how it should be, because rights are negotiated per channel. Channels show which capabilities they carry so the lineup is readable at a glance. **Q: What if our rights do not cover catch up for certain programmes?** Then those entries are simply not offered for playback in the guide. Rights commonly restrict particular programmes rather than whole channels, and the guide reflects that rather than requiring somebody to police it manually. **Q: Does a viewer need a set top box?** No. That is the point of recording in the network rather than on a device. There is no hardware to ship or support, no local storage to fill, and a viewer who switches from a television to a phone keeps everything. **Q: Does recording work with our monetization?** Yes. Catch up is treated like the rest of your content, so subscription entitlements and advertising apply to a recorded programme the same way they apply to the live broadcast.